The Swedish Academy on Thursday awarded French author Patrick Modiano this year’s Nobel Prize in Literature, noting the author’s work on “ungraspable human destinies.” In an interview with Speakeasy, the Academy’s Permanent Secretary Peter Englund describes his relationship with Mr. Modiano’s literature, why the Academy settled for the author and how it goes about choosing the winner.

The Nobel Prize for literature will be announced tomorrow, and as usual there’s much speculation as to who will win the award. A general consensus has been forming that an American may be picked this year, fueled by comments made by Nobel Academy judge Peter Englund that the prize has been too “Eurocentric” in recent years.

In fact, the last American writer to win the Nobel was Toni Morrison, in 1993. All but two of the laureates since 1994 have been European citizens; last year’s winner was France’s Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio.

Nevertheless, the L.A. Times seems to be positioning Amos Oz at the top of the heap, as is British betting firm Ladbrokes, which is giving low odds for the Israeli writer. The most-mentioned American favorites are Joyce Carol Oates, Thomas Pynchon and Philip Roth, although the latter’s gloomy oeuvre probing the tortured male psyche might clash with the academy’s stated goal of recognizing “the most outstanding work of an idealistic tendency.” German writer Herta Mueller’s name has also been bandied about.

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Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.